The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Usman Baba has filed a motion before a Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the \u2018contempt proceedings and committal order\u2019 brought against him.<\/p>\n
The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja.<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that a\u00a0 Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday, sentenced\u00a0 Baba to three months in prison for disobeying a valid court order.<\/p>\n
The court, in a ruling that was delivered by Justice M. O. Olajuwon, held that the<\/p>\n
I-G should be committed to prison and detained in custody for a period of three months, or until he obeyed an order it made since Oct. 21, 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf at the end of the three months, the contemnor remains recalcitrant and still refuses to purge his contempt, he shall be committed for another period and until he purges his contempt,\u201d the court held.<\/p>\n
The I-G\u2019s committal followed a suit that was filed by a police officer, Mr\u00a0 Patrick Okoli, who was unlawfully and compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Police Force.<\/p>\n
Justice Olajuwon noted that though the Police Service Commission, PSC, recommended Okoli\u2019s reinstatement into the police, a decision that was affirmed by the court, the I-G refused to comply with the order.<\/p>\n
The court had also ordered\u00a0 payment of N10 million to the applicant, being special and general damage for the unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional denial of his rights and privileges as a Senior Officer of the Nigeria Police Force from 1993 till date.<\/p>\n
According to the FPRO, the I-G filed the motion, to seek for an order to set aside\u00a0the contempt proceedings and committal order.<\/p>\n
He said the grounds for the motion was that\u00a0he had not been appointed into office as (I-G), when the case was instituted.<\/p>\n
Baba also affirmed that the contempt proceedings were served via substituted means in November, 2018, and January, 2019 respectively, on the then I-G, and not on him as the incumbent.<\/p>\n
He said official steps were taken\u00a0before his assumption of office,\u00a0by his predecessors to comply with the reinstatement order of the plaintiff, Mr Patrick\u00a0 Okoli.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was evidenced by an official letter addressed to the Police Service Commission, on the approval of the then I-G, as far back as 2015, before the court order of Nov. 29, 2022,<\/p>\n
\u2018The then I-G requested the commission to issue a reinstatement letter to the plaintiff, and effect his promotion, in line with the order of the Court in the exercise of its statutory authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grounds for the contempt proceedings ought not to have existed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The I-G pledged his commitment and steadfastness to continue to defend the rule of law and respect for judicial authorities.<\/p>\n
He said he would not at anytime, wittingly or unwittingly disobey any order, validly granted by courts of competent jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
(NAN)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Usman Baba has filed a motion before a Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the \u2018contempt proceedings and committal order\u2019 brought against him. The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4376,4563,453],"class_list":["post-60914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-challenge","tag-contempt","tag-igp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}